Understanding Veterans Lives Essay

Understanding Veterans’ Lives

Have you ever really thought about the lives of veterans after a war? Mike Clark is a veteran who served in the Vietnam war. He was chosen as a combat medic because he didn’t perform well mechanically. Mike went through boot camp and was later trained to be a medic for about ten weeks. The Vietnam war itself wasn’t as bloody compared to other wars, but the percent that died is similar. Learning about World War II veterans, it is important to consider how veterans deal differently with their grief, the job of combat medics, and how those medics have a higher chance of experiencing PTSD after the war. Many lives were lost during the war and people were affected differently by these deaths. When people in general lose a close friend or a loved one, they experience grief in different ways. Losing a friend in battle could be a whole different situation, resulting in more

Combat medics go through specific training in order to keep wounded soldiers awake, conscious, but most importantly, they are trained to keep them alive. Mike explained, “Setting bones. Tracheotomy, if need be. Just your basic medic stuff. The whole idea was to keep somebody alive until they could be medi-vaced and seen by a doctor: surgeon.” (Clark). Combat medics learn all the basic things and they should be able to perform first-aid procedures that will help a wounded soldier stay alive. The article “Gender Differences in Combat Medic Mental Health” explained, “Currently, over 35,000 Combat Medics serve alongside the combat forces in the U.S. Army, providing a full continuum of services from tactical combat casualty care on the battlefield to preventive medicine.” (Elnitsky). The expectation for combat medics is to take care of the rest of the soldiers, therefore, they are exposed to higher chance of having